- She was named Democracy in Zulu, at a time when her country had none. A few years later, the constitution born of the historic South African election that ended apartheid made Nonkululeko "free" and "equal. " But the eight cows paid for her as a bride price mean that she is neither. At 14, Nonkululeko fell victim to a secretive cultural practice called thwala , or bride abduction, that continues here in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal. Originally an acceptable means for two young Zulu people in love to wed when their families opposed the match, thwala is often abused to victimize isolated rural women and enrich male relatives, activists say. "It's a distortion of our culture," said Sizani Ngubane, of the Rural Women's Movement, a nongovernmental rights organization.

The four Marines killed while clearing an artillery range of unexploded ordnance at Camp Pendleton were members of an elite explosive ordnance disposal team, all with combat experience. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the Marines we lost yesterday," said Brig. Gen. John W. Bullard, the base commanding general. "Explosive ordnance disposal is a small and tight-knit community, not just in the Marine Corps but in the entire U.S. military. " Cause of the Wednesday accident on the Zulu artillery range is under investigation.

No Time Like the Present A Novel Nadine Gordimer Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 423 pp., $27 With the title of this novel, her 16th, Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer once again shows her preternatural capacity to take a slangy catchphrase and make it right to the point. And one that is absolutely appropriate to her novel's milieu and, beyond that, to its subject matter in general. To read "No Time Like the Present" is to plunge into the caldron that is South Africa today, a chaotic now which cannot avoid the dark shadow of a heavy past: "There was a Pleistocene Age, a Bronze Age, an Iron Age. "It seemed an Age was over.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Nelson Mandela's king is a colorful figure. Perhaps a little too colorful. Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo's greatest claim to fame is that he counts South Africa's first black president among his subjects. But the king of Mandela's AbaThembu clan made local headlines Thursday with a string of invective against South Africa's current leader, Jacob Zuma, so blunt that members of his own entourage reportedly gasped. Dalindyebo lashed out at Zuma as he delivered a letter to the president's Pretoria office Wednesday.

Factional fighting and confrontations between activists and authorities killed 20 blacks and wounded six police officers over the weekend, authorities said. This included 13 people killed in unrest in KwaZulu, homeland of Zulu leader Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, whose supporters have been involved in some of the worst fighting. Buthelezi's Inkatha movement opposes apartheid but is more conservative than the African National Congress.

Five more bodies were discovered in hills south of Durban, South Africa, bringing to 68 the death toll in fighting between thousands of Zulu and Pondo tribesmen. Police officials braced for more tribal violence and warned that the death toll could climb to more than 100 after officers complete a search of the brush-covered Umbumbulu Hills.

Hundreds of blacks today laid siege to an Indian settlement founded by Mahatma Gandhi, where defending Asian vigilantes opened fire with shotguns and boosted the death toll in four days of riots near Durban to at least 55. The rioters, mostly Zulu tribesmen who live in the area, rampaged through the former home of Gandhi, and the late Indian pacifist's Phoenix Center complex became a raging battlefield.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Nelson Mandela's king is a colorful figure. Perhaps a little too colorful. Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo's greatest claim to fame is that he counts South Africa's first black president among his subjects. But the king of Mandela's AbaThembu clan made local headlines Thursday with a string of invective against South Africa's current leader, Jacob Zuma, so blunt that members of his own entourage reportedly gasped. Dalindyebo lashed out at Zuma as he delivered a letter to the president's Pretoria office Wednesday.

The United Democratic Front, a multiracial coalition of 650 groups opposed to South Africa's apartheid policies of racial segregation, welcomed publicly for the first time Wednesday the campaign in the United States for economic sanctions against the minority white government of South Africa.

The police thriller "Zulu," set and shot in South Africa, will close the 66th Cannes Film Festival on May 26. Starring Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom, the film is directed by Jerome Salle. An adaptation of the novel of the same name by Caryl Ferey, the screenplay was co-written by Salle and Julien Rappeneau. Described as part crime noir and part social study, the English-language story follows a police investigation during apartheid. Two policeman, a black (Whitaker) and a white (Bloom)

An intensive campaign to combat HIV/AIDS with costly antiretroviral drugs in rural South Africa has increased life expectancy by more than 11 years and significantly reduced the risk of infection for healthy individuals, according to new research. The two studies, published Thursday in the journal Science, come as wealthy Western nations are debating how best to stretch limited AIDS funding at a time of economic stress. With an annual price tag of $500 to $900 per patient, antiretroviral therapy programs have stirred frequent debate.

- She was named Democracy in Zulu, at a time when her country had none. A few years later, the constitution born of the historic South African election that ended apartheid made Nonkululeko "free" and "equal. " But the eight cows paid for her as a bride price mean that she is neither. At 14, Nonkululeko fell victim to a secretive cultural practice called thwala , or bride abduction, that continues here in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal. Originally an acceptable means for two young Zulu people in love to wed when their families opposed the match, thwala is often abused to victimize isolated rural women and enrich male relatives, activists say. "It's a distortion of our culture," said Sizani Ngubane, of the Rural Women's Movement, a nongovernmental rights organization.

No Time Like the Present A Novel Nadine Gordimer Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 423 pp., $27 With the title of this novel, her 16th, Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer once again shows her preternatural capacity to take a slangy catchphrase and make it right to the point. And one that is absolutely appropriate to her novel's milieu and, beyond that, to its subject matter in general. To read "No Time Like the Present" is to plunge into the caldron that is South Africa today, a chaotic now which cannot avoid the dark shadow of a heavy past: "There was a Pleistocene Age, a Bronze Age, an Iron Age. "It seemed an Age was over.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Joseph Shabalala's strong, deep voice rings out clear and haunting. A choir of voices join him, rising into a harmony of sound. "This is the way we do," sings legendary South African a cappella group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. "This is the way we do." For the Grammy Award-winning singers, their way has been the way to stardom.

NTSIKI Biyela looked curiously at the red liquid in her glass, wondering what to expect. She was listening to a connoisseur who swirled his glass about, passionately extolling the perfumes of blackberries and cigar box that she was supposed to be appreciating. Biyela smelled, as instructed, but there had never been any blackberries or cigar boxes in the Zulu village where she grew up, fetching water from the river and firewood from the forest every day. The liquid smelled alien.

The four Marines killed while clearing an artillery range of unexploded ordnance at Camp Pendleton were members of an elite explosive ordnance disposal team, all with combat experience. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the Marines we lost yesterday," said Brig. Gen. John W. Bullard, the base commanding general. "Explosive ordnance disposal is a small and tight-knit community, not just in the Marine Corps but in the entire U.S. military. " Cause of the Wednesday accident on the Zulu artillery range is under investigation.

Chief Buthelezi's argument follows the cliche reasoning that divestiture will lead to the removal of American businesses in South Africa, which, in turn, will lead to a loss of jobs for the struggling black majority. This argument is fallacious because it fails to recognize the structure and history of the South African economy. The South African economy was built upon cheap African labor and is still largely dependent upon it. The relevance of this fact is compounded when one acknowledges those restrictions set up against capital repatriation following the Soweto uprising of 1976.

With an explosion of drumbeats, "The Lion King" has returned to its cultural roots, and its story of assassination, coup and famine, the destruction of a nation and hopes for its rebirth is finding a special resonance in Africa.

Even while living in exile, thousands of miles from South Africa, Mazisi Kunene wrote poetry from home. Epic poems that explain the cycles of creation and destruction, the wisdom of the ancestors, the genius of the Zulu emperor Shaka were rooted in Kunene's homeland but came alive again in Los Angeles, where he lived for nearly two decades. Such work -- rich in African history, steeped in the nation's oral tradition -- had a purpose beyond its artistic value.